It has always been a dream for me to design for Michael Jordan as I grew up idolizing him in the 80's and 90's. One of the items on my bucket list was "TO DESIGN FOR JORDAN BRAND". Well last year, that came true! And I waited almost a year before they released my first design for them to the public. This is the first of several t-shirt. Hopefully I can design more for them in the future.

This tee was unique because Nike's brief was for me to create a design that showcased Michael Jordan's 6 rings without using any official image of him. No official NBA imagery, no real uniforms, no faces, no real rings. So my solution was to recreate his first reaction after winning his 6th title at UTAH--raising 6 fingers to crowd. Something people will never forget. The rings are not based on the real ring designs as I had to recreate those too.

I was one of ten people lucky enough to be asked to customize a pair of Lebron Xs for Lebron James' visit to Manila. The brief was to take inspiration from the current Nike campaign for Lebron called #WITNESSHISTORY. We were asked to create a design that should be derived from any insight related to LeBron James (i.e. career achievements, off-the-court fashion icon, King James, Lion, etc.), and reflect his greatness as an athlete.

I chose to create a piece I call Manila Inferno, loosely based on his current team the Miami Heat. I also created a lacelock of a lion based on the Philippine flag sun. Then added the patches "Manila Inferno" on each shoe tongue.

Now before embarking on this gargantuan task, I asked my son Gabe if I could practice painting on his pair of Lebron Xs. They were 6 months old and were pretty much falling apart. I was only able to convince him after telling him I'd buy him a new pair! Thankfully he said yes. But I do owe him a pair of sneakers.

My first idea was to paint a pattern of palm leaves on each shoe, because that was something common between Manila and Miami. But that didn't really work out so I had to continue experimenting. In the process, I came up with the idea of doing shoes "on fire". This was the fist result. It was really a mess and didn't really look like flames. And they looked so bad my son wouldn't dare wear them again.

So after basically messing up Gabe's old pair, I felt I was ready to tackle the actual pair of Lebron Xs. The thing with sneaker customs normally is the need to prep the base before painting. But after an exhaustive research on customizing Lebron Xs, I couldn't find out the proper way of prepping each pair. So pressed for time, I just went straight up and created the base of the flames with orange acrylic paint.

The next step was to create a few more layers of orange paint to create a bit more depth. I then added the light orange and bright yellow layers to create a more realistic look.

When I was content with the paint job, I wanted to add a lacelock and some custom patches on the tongues.

So there it is! Tha pair is now on exhibit at Nike Park Bonifacio High Street. Photos courtesy of Sole Movement. Thanks Martin!

The program's goal is to raise $100,000 for the program. The sale of the t-shirt is our own little way to help achieve this. The design contains endangered Philippine species as both national symbols, and as symbols of our hope to use our land more wisely.

I’m a big fan of basketball and have been Inspired by the story and rise of New York Knicks player Jeremy Lin. So I decided to create my own take on what I think Nike could do for him in terms of branding and identity. I'm not an expert in this field so I did this exercise to hone my skills.Below are a few ideas. If you like what you see, let’s work together.

Disclaimer:*this is not an official Nike (Jeremy Lin) logo*all photos used are not my own, if you are the owner and wish for me to take it down please contact ajd@collision-theory.com

PROCESS

I started sketching out ideas. Exploring several possible directions. Playing around with his initials, "JL" and his jersey number "17". I also explored doing a logo based on "LIN" or "JLIN".

I then started picking out some directions I thought would work and went on to recreate them in Adobe Illustrator. I really liked using "JL" because of the symmetry of the letters. You can essentially create the "J" and just flip it horizontally to use as the "L".

I also liked the idea of of designing "LIN" as an ambigram. It worked because the "in" also become his jersey number "17".

The other directions included designing "JLIN" or "JL17" and make it look like Chinese characters. But not really sure if this is ok given the cultural implications.

I felt strongly about the solution below because it was flexible enough to be used in many ways. As "JL", "JLIN", or "JL17". And by playing around the placement of "JL" and "IN/17", I found out that it creates a cross based on the negative space. As some people know, Jeremy Lin is very open about his faith.

Application

The next part was to apply the logo on posters, apparel, and other merchandise. Nike, after all, needs to sell products. I love the blue and orange of the New York Knicks so this was my jump-off point in choosing the colors.